


The Missing Part of Chapter 31

by Maisie_top_trash



Series: Unseen - Fear Will Lose [22]
Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-10
Updated: 2017-06-10
Packaged: 2018-11-12 10:33:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11160093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maisie_top_trash/pseuds/Maisie_top_trash
Summary: Sorry





	The Missing Part of Chapter 31

Josh loved his office. When he first joined the firm as an associate fresh off passing the bar, he was shoved straight into a room of intricately weaved board partitions that gave each of the 30 fellow associates approximately a metre and a half square which they could call their own. Within that they still had to cram in a desk and a filing cabinet, and if you had room to take a breath then you were a lucky one. You could hear every sound your neighbour made, every sneeze, every growl of the stomach, every tap of the keyboard.

He loved his colleagues, he did, all the ones within reaching distance of him would go out for drinks at least once a week and Josh considered all of them friends. However after months slaving away at school and studying into the early hours of every morning, he was hoping for a little more than a cramped desk and nothing but research cases.

So he wouldn't hide the fact he was absolutely delighted when he was recruited by one of the partners to be put on the Harper case. He'd been involved in a couple of minor settlements and a few simple court cases, so being put on the biggest one his firm had ever been given was both a huge honour and a huge shock.

Definitely one of the best parts was finally getting his own office.

And after 8 months of hard graft and all nighters and endless streams of coffee, the big day had almost arrive. Two more nights, one more full day till Josh would take the floor and argue the case that he and the team had spent so many hours piecing together.

"Knock knock." A voice accompanied the wrapping of knuckles against the open door, and Josh smiled as he looked up and saw Andrew stood there.  
"Hey," Josh welcomed him as he wandered in whilst taking off his tie.  
"Cramming in some last minute late night studying?" He teased, gesturing towards the papers that Josh was rereading for the hundredth time.  
"Maybe."

"Come on man, we both know you know it, leave it. You're not going out tomorrow for New Year's Eve, come out with me tonight instead."  
"Easy for some, you're not on the floor on Friday." Josh sighed, running his hand through his hair, stressed.  
"Josh you know this case inside out, you're gonna destroy."  
"That's the plan." He leant back in his chair, crossing his hand across his chest and spinning a little.

"I know you're up early Friday, can I convince you to come out for some good luck drinks tonight? Celebrate new year early? Let your hair down before court?"  
"Nah thanks, gonna go see Tyler."  
"How is he?"  
"Eugh, not great." He sighed.  
"Any sort of idea on how long they're gonna keep him in hospital?"  
"Pff, hard to tell, looking at maybe another 5 months? They're going to let him go when he's ready, and that's not going to be any time soon." Josh scratched his head.  
"Shit man, I'm sorry, pass on my love."  
"Will do,"  
"Anything I can do?"  
"I appreciate you asking but I don't think so."  
"Alright, well let me know."  
"Thanks Andrew."

"You can say no to drinks, but you can't say no to this." Andrew said, reaching into his pocket then pulling out a small cube box and placing it down in front of Josh. He laughed as he leant forwards against the desk and picked it up.  
"What's this?"  
"Open it and find out. Good luck gift from the team."  
"I'm not sure I want to." Josh laughed as he took the top off and tipped the gift into his hand, then laughed harder when he saw what it was. They'd created a personalised snow globe for him, the twist being that the image in the background was a photo of Josh asleep with his head on the briefing room table, surrounded by stacks of paper and cups of coffee and cans of red bull. He had no idea when it had been taken, not because he couldn't remember it ever happening, but instead because it had happened so many times that he couldn't recall which particular incident that had been.

"Hahaha wow, thank you?"  
"Have you not been upstairs? All the partners have one of themselves." Andrew grinned. "Apparently it's a tradition here before your first major case. Congratulations Josh, you're officially one of the big boys."

 

 

  
Josh finally tore himself away from his desk and rushed to his Chevy at about 8 in the evening. He was in no way the last to leave the office, it was probable that some poor associate on the fourth floor would be pulling an all nighter, but it was late for him. Tyler was being visited by his parents but Josh still felt guilty about not being there too, so placed his pile of notes on the passenger seat and tucked his lucky snow globe beside them, then started the ignition.

The weather was atrocious, a storm cloud had rolled in the day before and forgotten to leave again, so the rain had been near constant. He switched his wipers onto full power but they barely cleared the windscreen before another sheet of water cascaded down. Before starting to drive, he pulled the sun visor down and kissed two fingers then pressed them to Tyler's face in the photo he kept up there, then pushed it up again and pulled out of the parking lot.

The drive from his office to Campbell usually took about 20 minutes, the longing in his heart was attempting to convince him he could make it in 10, however the sensible side of him knew that the wet conditions needed a slower more controlled approach.

He stopped at the junction and waited for the lights to turn, listening to the rain hammer down on the roof rather than turning on the radio. The randomness combined with the uniformity of the drops were addictive and he almost missed the green as he sat there listening.

Josh was aware that not everyone shared his love of the rain, namely his husband. He hated and feared everything about storms, the rain, the thunder, the lightning, the darkness. Even when he wasn't psychotic, he didn't like them. Therefore Josh was worried, even more worried than usual, and his thumb tapped against the wheel anxiously as he turned a corner towards a smaller road that shortcut the freeway.

Tyler wasn't doing well. There was no dancing round the truth, Tyler was not doing well. He wasn't doing well physically, had a deep gash on his head, kept fainting, kept self harming and was losing far too much weight. And the list of mental health issues causing him havoc was so much longer and in some sense so much more worrying.

"Woah, easy, settle down girl," Josh murmured to his car as he temporarily felt her glide away a little and the tires lose traction on the wet asphalt, the start of aquaplaning. He thought back to when Debby had taught him to drive in the very same vehicle he still drove today, and the first time she had described exactly what aquaplaning was. Luckily alongside that she had also taught him what to do, so he quickly took back control and continued his route around the quiet road.

He focused on the road ahead once again, knowing these conditions weren't exactly ideal for him to get upset over Debby or Ty. Instead he watched the beams of light projecting from the front of his beloved car and the way the raindrops caused their shadows to dance, and the splash back of water to tarmac supplied the applause to accompany the performance.

Then all of a sudden the road wasn't black anymore, a white line entered his limited vision and Josh panicked as he realised he'd veered out the lane and towards the drop to the side a little. He tried to gently correct the error but the vehicle wouldn't respond, and that was when he really truly began to panic. Somehow, somehow he resisted the urge to yank the wheel hard and slam on the breaks, knowing it wouldn't end well, but his heart pounded and his head span as he attempted to ride the aquaplane. But this plane wasn't leading him to safety and Josh felt a surge of fear when suddenly lights coming in the opposite direction blinded him and as he flinched, he pulled the steering wheel and the car with him.

 

 

  
He was wet, it was torrential rain and the glass must have smashed or the side torn open because he was soaking wet and maybe if he told himself he was wet because of the torrential rain then he would be able to ignore the fact that the liquid was hot and the liquid was red and the liquid was dripping in his eyes and in his mouth and it tasted of metal and it was also pooling in his lap except his lap wasn't holding it in his lap because he was upside down.

He was numb too, it was torrential rain and the glass must have smashed or the side torn open because he was soaking wet and maybe if he told himself he was numb because of the torrential rain then he would be able to ignore the fact that the numbness started the same place that his legs were crushed within the crushed footwell of the car and the numbness started where the seatbelt carved deep into his shoulder socket and pinned him to the roof of the upturned car.

The sounds. The sounds were so loud. The sounds were too loud. The sounds were so loud. There was a screaming, a screaming of metal against metal that looped continuously and threatened to breach his ear drums. There was a screaming, a screaming from every nick and rip and tear of his body. There was a screaming, a screaming sound coming from his hoarse throat.

A crackling sound too.

He thought maybe it was the whip crack of each rain drop colliding with earth after its decent from the gods, crashing down down down relentlessly, but a growling swell of heat pressed against his neck. Through the chaotic splashes of unending water he could see an orange glow behind him. Fire.

"HELP! HEEELLPPP! PLEASE! SOMEBODY HELP ME!" He screamed desperately but the lone road was desolate and he knew it was hopeless, there wasn't a soul around. The flames roared in the howl of the wind and Josh squeezed his eyes tightly shut as he sobbed. He knew his fate.

When he managed to open them again, his blood blurred gaze fell to the snow globe that had shattered and mixed with the shards from every other window in the car, but the image stood out. It wasn't the image he wanted to see, him asleep at work, it wasn't the last thing he wanted to see. It was struggle enough to hold his pulsing head up and look at the sun visor, and any attempt to pull out the precious image of his husband were futile. So he gave up and instead closed his swollen eyelids once again, clearing his mind of anything except the beautiful way Tyler's eyes smiled.

A fireball engulfed the car, and with it, extinguished the flicker of life within a battered body.


End file.
